Anyone care to defend this?

[CalvinandHobbes]

Any Chavez defenders care to imagine what they would say if Bush did this?


President Hugo Chavez has ordered the "acquisition by force" of a landmark Hilton Hotel on Venezuela's Margarita island, the government's Official Gazette announced Tuesday.

The facility, on the Caribbean resort island of Margarita in Nueva Esparta state, was targeted for state takeover less than a month after it was used to host the Africa-South America Summit.

"The acquisition by force of the real estate, furnishings, and related assets (...) of the Margarita Hilton & Suites Hotel Complex, along with the Marina owned by Inversiones Pueblamar y Desarrollos MBK, have been ordered," a presidential decree in the official register read.

Article

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.641f6a1ace6620056b73f6b56e7b6cd8.b31&show_article=1

[Fumesucker]

1. Eminent domain happens in the US too..

Not defending it but it's not at all uncommon in the land of the free and it often benefits private business.

[CalvinandHobbes]

2. This isnt ED, its wholesale takeover for the same use.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

8. Oh yeah...our Supremes ruled that older homes could be taken away and sold to

luxury home builders. What's the difference?

[Zywiec]

9. The people in the older homes received nothing for them homes?

I wonder who received the money when they were sold to luxury home builders and how much Hilton will be getting for their hotel from Chavez?

:shrug:

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

10. They didn't want money, they wanted to keep their homes. They took their case

all the way up to the Supreme Court.

[Zywiec]

12. I understand that they didn't want to move, but they were compensated

Do you think Chavez will be compensating Hilton for the confiscation of their hotel?

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

14. I think the compensation is irrelevant. They were FORCED to leave their homes.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/02/22/scotus.eminent.domain/

Matt Dery and his parents, who live next door to each other, were among those who rejected the city's compensation package.

"There's no amount of money that can compensate for what the other side of that coin would be," said Dery, who attended Tuesday's court arguments. "Truly, my parents don't want to wake up rich, I mean, that amount of money you're talking about. They don't want to wake up rich tomorrow, they just want to wake up tomorrow, where they live." The Dery family has lived in Fort Trumball for a century.

[Romulox]

19. That's as arbitrary a place to draw a line as any...

Don't see a lot of moral force in the argument: "yes, we took their land, but we gave them what WE think it was worth." :shrug:

[dysfunctional press]

23. yes, he will.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/10/13/business-lt-venezuela-hilton_6996791.html

venezuela is BUYING the resort, not just seizing it.

[AlphaCentauri]

25. LOL how many livers could be safe if some of the anti chavistas would read first n/t

[dysfunctional press]

22. Hilton is being compensated for the hotel/resort.

[blondeatlast]

15. No Chavez fan here, but yup, what you said. It's a non-issue, IMHO. nt

[geckosfeet]

3. It's their country and they can do whatever they feel is in their best interests.

'In the past four years, Venezuela has implemented the nationalization of industries it sees as strategic including electrical utilities, cement, steel, oil services and banking.'

[Buzz Clik]

5. "They" as in Chavez.

[Buzz Clik]

4. Defend it? You've got to be kidding. The DU Chavez fans will be having a party.

Remember -- private ownership of anything is bad.

[blogslut]

6. I won't defend Chavez

I won't defend the action.

However, I will ask WTF anyone would read Breitbart?

[tazkcmo]

7. Personally, I have bigger problems than what Chavez is doing.

My wages are shrinking, cost of living rising, health declining, etc. I have very little time to worry about Hilton losing a hotel.

[mudplanet]

11. Defend it. Let me see.....

Venezuela takes over a profitable hotel situated on a precious national resource, pays the owners market rate.
This Chavez is clearly a dictator.

Colombia conducts decades long murderous suppression of unions, murdering tens of thousands of unarmed civilians, continues to be in bed with narcotraffickers while receiving billions yearly from US.
These guys are bold freedom fighters.


Nicaraguan government closes down a newspaper run by pro-Somozan wealthy elite following the overthrow of one of America's most brutal dictators, who ruled the country for over 50 years with direct US military and economic support while slaughtering, wholesale, anyone that dared publicly oppose him (really, this guy was second only to Papa Doc Duvalier).
Wow, these guys are frightening, pro-communists dictators - let's mine their harbors and stage a decade-long war through proxy characterized by frequent attacks on health clinics and other civic organizations that are attempting to improve the live of the rural poor.

Honduran military and clique of wealthy, elite landowners conduct coup to take over country from legitimate elected president. Closes down any opposition press and conducts brutal suppression of civilian, unarmed opposition.
Yet another group of intrepid freedom fighters supporting the American Way Of Life.

I guess I can't defend Chavez. You've got your values right where they should be - for yet another nazi.

[silverweb]

26. Well said!

:applause:

[Orwellian_Ghost]

13. OMG!

The poor, poor elites must now suffer at the Holiday Inn.

[Judi Lynn]

27. Astonishing image. My god. Thank you. n/t

[Soylent Brice]

16. Venezuelan Poll: Chavez Enjoys 62.4% Approval Rating

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x488842

:shrug:

not defending, but this certainly makes your point a bit moot.

[spanza]

24. President's approval rate is not the best indicator (elections are in 2012)

Political parties' approval rate is more relevant (legislative elections in one year)

"However, while Chavez's individual popularity remains high, support for his United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) is much lower at 32.3%, according to the poll."

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/4857

(Venezuelananalysis that we should read with some skepticism, considering that their front page is decorated with Chavez's face)

And, yes, Venezuela is paying Hilton for the forced acquisition.

[MiniMe]

17. He already did, in Texas

http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/talking_politics/documents/03599354.asp

/snip
If you search the LexisNexis database for the past two years, you will find 10 references to Kerry and the fire hydrant. (Granted, four of those are Carr columns, not counting his Post piece.) What you will not find is a single reference to what Bush did in Arlington, Texas, in the early 1990s, when he was the part-owner of and principal glad-hander for the Texas Rangers baseball team. Bush did not have a fire hydrant moved. Rather, he had an entire 13-acre neighborhood moved — well, flattened — so that he could build a new ballpark for the Rangers. He did this by persuading the Texas legislature to create an independent authority to take the land by eminent domain and use it for a stadium — a remarkable piece of sports socialism that the former owners of the Red Sox unsuccessfully tried to replicate a decade later. (Note: that plan, apparently dead and gone, would have displaced the offices of the Boston Phoenix, which opposed it strenuously.)

The Arlington property owners, who were pretty well-off themselves, went to court and tried to fight back. But Bush and the Rangers got their way. Eventually the authority — that is, the taxpayers — paid $4.2 million for the land, and another $191 million to build the stadium itself, or more than three times the contribution that the Rangers themselves were required to make. As Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose put it in Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush (2000), "Here in the Great State, the son of a sitting president served as what Mexicans call a prestanombre — a small player who lends his name to a project run by a big player. Our prestanombre got the taxpayers to provide a big chunk of added value to his business, was elected governor, and made a $15 million profit on a $600,000 investment and his family name."
/snip

[AllentownJake]

18. I don't know at this point in history

After having trillions of taxpayers money handed to private enterprise by our government and the executives of said enterprises giving themselves billions of bonuses I just can't get worked up over Hugo Chavez taking a Hotel.

[Romulox]

20. No need to "defend" anything. Might makes right in Venezuela, as it does in the US.

:hi:

[dysfunctional press]

21. venezuela is BUYING the hotel- NOT just taking it.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/10/13/business-lt-venezuela-hilton_6996791.html

[EFerrari]

28. LOL

[Peace Patriot]

29. Yeah, I'd defend it. I think mega-corporations like Hilton should be broken up.

They acquire much too much wealth and power, and become a menace to society--beyond their union-busting and other anti-social practices, they buy politicians and corrupt government and democracy. I'm all for business and trade. I think that a healthy marketplace is a basic human need. But I hate and detest mega-corporations, corporate monopolies and global corporate predation. They destroy variety, creativity and local businesses, restrict peoples' choices, and promote a vile mono-culture that is sicking to human beings and to the planet we all depend upon.

Anyway, the Venezuelan government is BUYING the property--in an action of imminent domain. Governments do this all the time--often to "little people"--to build highways, stadiums and colossal "convention centers." No reason why Hilton should be exempt.